Stepdad Acquitted of Rape Charges
The accused represented by lawyer, Ami Kohli, appeared before Judge Justice Usaia Ratuvili for judgment on February 9.
Saturday 17 February 2024 | 11:37
A stepfather, who was charged for the rape of his stepdaughter, was acquitted by the High Court in Labasa.
In May, 2023, he pleaded not guilty to three counts of sexual assault, two counts of indecent assault and one count of rape.
It was alleged that he raped his stepdaughter numerous occasions from 2016 to 2022 in Labasa.
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The court heard that the first incident occurred when the victim was in Year One.
After the last alleged incident of sexual assault when she was in Year Seven, she told her mother everything, who then reported the matter at police station.
The accused represented by lawyer, Ami Kohli, appeared before Judge Justice Usaia Ratuvili for judgment on February 9.
Justice Ratuvili said studies had shown that people subjected to trauma would often block out the memories of horrific incidents as a safety mechanism.
However, he said in the case for the complainant to not even recall whether the alleged incident happened during the day or night and the month or day of the week, went against her credibility.
He found the accused had successfully raised reasonable doubts as to the credibility of the State’s only witness.
Hence, Judge Justice Ratuvili said the reasonable doubts raised would be in favour of the accused and he was acquitted of all counts.
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